Chris Tille

Its obvious beauty attracted him; its depth and mercurial nature enchanted him completely. The lake managed to bring successful photographer Chris Tille back to basics after he had been all around the world for many years: back to the freedom of the artist.

 

 

Chris Tille knew at a young age that he wanted to be a photographer. At 12, he went out with
his first Yashica viewfinder camera and took pictures. At 19, he studied the craft in Innsbruck
in the traditional way. The intense discussions he had with one of the most famous post-war photographers, Robert Frank, whom he visited at his lonely log cabin in Canada, and with Katharina Sieverding (who studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Joseph Beuys’),
with whom he worked on numerous artistic projects, were certainly influential in his artistic career path.

 

He then began working as a freelance photographer. ‘At the start, I was unsure
I’d be able to survive on purely artistic photography alone, so I did contract photography work
for businesses,’ says Chris Tille. His first major client was Siemens, in a smaller capacity initially,
but he was soon creating imagery for the entire group and travelling around the world every year. His eye for people and the artistic element of his images made the difference.

 

Linde, GE, Nokia ... many companies came after and Chris Tille was very successful – and then he came to Tegernsee in 2009 and fell in love with the area. Chris Tille began to photograph the lake. His artistic approach and his way of seeing the lake has evolved. Where he captured the stunning scenery, the views, the mood at the lake in the beginning, he now has a clearer focus, capturing the structures of the water or the light the water reflects. ‘The lake holds possibilities as yet undreamed of,’he says, ‘you only have to look closely.’

 

His pieces now hang on the walls of Georg Kofler, the former CEO of Premiere;
Siemens CFO Dr Ralf P. Thomas; Achim Rohnke, the head of Bavaria Film; Brigitte von Boch and Countess Susanne von Moltke among many others. Chris Tille has arrived.
At his home of Tegernsee and in his work as an artist.